Chapter 17 - Reconstruction
Section Notes
Rebuilding the South
The Fight over Reconstruction
Reconstruction in the South
Quick Facts
The Reconstruction
Amendments
Hopes Raised and Denied
Chapter 17 Visual Summary
Video
The Impact of the
Preservation of the
Union
Maps
Reconstruction Military
Districts
African American
Representation in the
South, 1870
Images
Testing New Freedoms
Helping the Freedpeople
The Klu Klux Klan
Rebuilding the South
The Big Idea
The nation faced many problems in rebuilding the Union.
Main Ideas
• President Lincoln and Congress differed in their views as
Reconstruction began.
• The end of the Civil War meant freedom for African
Americans in the South.
• President Johnson’s plan began the process of
Reconstruction.
Main Idea 1:
President Lincoln and Congress differed in
their views as Reconstruction began.
• Reconstruction: the process of readmitting the former
Confederate states to the Union
– Lasted from 1865 to 1877
• The South had been severely damaged by war—cities,
towns, and farms had been ruined.
• Many southerners faced starvation.
• Banks failed, and merchants went bankrupt.
Reconstruction Plans
Lincoln’s Plan
• The Ten Percent Plan
offered amnesty, or official
pardon, to southerners.
• Southerners had to swear
allegiance to the Union and
agree that slavery was
illegal.
• New state governments
could be formed once 10
percent of voters had made
these pledges.
• Lincoln wanted to restore
order quickly.
Wade-Davis Bill
• Congressional Republicans’
alternative to Lincoln’s plan
• To be readmitted, a state
had to ban slavery, and a
majority of adult males had
to take a loyalty oath.
• Only southerners who swore
they had never supported
the Confederacy could vote
or hold office.
• Lincoln refused to sign the
bill into law.
Main Idea 2:
The end of the Civil War meant freedom for
African Americans in the South.
• One thing Republicans agreed on was abolishing slavery.
• Lincoln urged Congress to propose the Thirteenth
Amendment.
• Made slavery illegal in the United States
• The amendment was ratified, and took effect on December
18, 1865.
Freedom Brought Changes
• Newly freed slaves faced many changes.
– Married couples could legalize their marriages.
– Families searched for members who had been sold
away.
– Many moved from mostly white counties to places with
more African Americans.
• Freed people demanded same economic and political
rights as white citizens.
– Many former slaves wanted their own land to farm.
– Many white planters refused to surrender their land.
– The U.S. government returned land to its original
owners.
Freedmen’s Bureau
• Established by Congress in 1865
• Provided relief for freed people and certain poor people in
the South
• Distributed food and provided education and legal help
• Established 3,000 schools and several universities
Main Idea 3:
President Johnson’s plan
began the process of Reconstruction.
A New President
• President Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865.
• Vice president Andrew Johnson became president.
Reconstruction
• Johnson’s Reconstruction plan was similar to Lincoln’s, but
included the need for wealthy southerners and former
Confederate officials to receive presidential pardons in order
to receive amnesty.
New State Governments
• Johnson appointed a temporary governor to lead each
state.
• States were required to revise their constitutions and
declare that secession was illegal.
• States had to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment and refuse
to pay Confederate debts.
• All southern states except Texas had created new
governments by 1865.
• Johnson declared the Union to be restored, but Congress
refused to readmit southern states into the Union because
too many newly elected representatives had been leaders
of the Confederacy.
The Fight over Reconstruction
The Big Idea
The return to power of the pre-war southern leadership led
Republicans in Congress to take control of Reconstruction.
Main Ideas
• Black Codes led to opposition to President Johnson’s plan
for Reconstruction.
• The Fourteenth Amendment ensured citizenship for African
Americans.
• Radical Republicans in Congress took charge of
Reconstruction.
• The Fifteenth Amendment gave African Americans the
right to vote.
Main Idea 1:
Black Codes led to opposition to President
Johnson’s plan for Reconstruction.
• New state legislatures approved by President Johnson
began passing laws to deny civil rights to African
Americans.
• Every southern state passed Black Codes, laws that
greatly limited the freedom of African Americans.
• African Americans organized to oppose the codes.
Radical Republicans
• Black Codes angered many Republicans, who felt the South was
returning to its old ways.
– Most Republicans were moderates who hoped the South would
not have to be forced into following the laws.
• Radical Republicans took a harsher stance, wanting the
government to force change in the South.
– Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania and Charles Sumner of
Massachusetts were leaders.
– Radical Republicans, like the moderate Republicans, believed
the Black Codes were cruel.
– Unlike the moderates, they wanted the federal government to
be more involved in Reconstruction.
Main Idea 2:
The Fourteenth Amendment ensured
citizenship for African Americans.
• Radicals urged Congress to pass a bill giving the Freedmen’s
Bureau more power.
– Johnson vetoed the bill because he said Congress could not
pass laws until all southern states were back in Congress.
• Republicans passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
– Johnson again used his veto power.
– Congress overrode Johnson’s veto.
– Republicans feared that the Act might be overturned.
• Republicans then proposed the Fourteenth Amendment in
1866.
The Fourteenth Amendment
• Defined all people born or naturalized in United States, except
Native Americans, as citizens
• Guaranteed citizens equal protection under the law
• Said states could not “deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law”
• Banned many former Confederate officials from holding state or
federal offices
• Made state laws subject to federal court review
• Gave Congress the power to pass any laws needed to enforce the
amendment
• The amendment was a key issue in the 1866 congressional
elections. Riots and violence occurred. The Republicans won a
commanding two-thirds majority in the House and Senate, giving
them the power to override any presidential veto.
Main Idea 3:
Radical Republicans in Congress took
charge of Reconstruction.
• The elections of 1866 gave Republicans a two-thirds
majority in Congress.
• They passed the first of several Reconstruction Acts in
1867.
• The laws divided the South into five military districts with
a military commander in control of each.
• The military would remain in control of the South until
southern states rejoined the Union.
President Johnson on Trial
Impeachment
• Johnson opposed Republican Reconstruction.
• Congress passed laws limiting his power.
• Johnson broke the law when he fired Secretary of War
Edwin Stanton.
• The House of Representatives voted to impeach the
president. Impeachment is the process used by the
legislative body to bring charges of wrongdoing against a
public official.
• The Senate did not convict Johnson, but his power was
greatly reduced.
• Johnson decided not to run for reelection in 1868.
Election of 1868
• The war hero General Ulysses S. Grant was elected
president.
• He appealed to northern voters. His slogan was “Let Us
Have Peace.”
• Hundreds of thousands of African Americans also voted for
Grant since he was from the “party of Lincoln.”
• African American votes helped Grant win a narrow victory.
Main Idea 4:
The Fifteenth Amendment gave African
Americans the right to vote.
Radical Republicans in Control
• Wanted to protect their Reconstruction plan as more southern
states rejoined the Union
• Proposed the Fifteenth Amendment in 1869
Fifteenth Amendment
• Went into effect in 1870
• Guaranteed African American men the right to vote
Reconstruction in the South
The Big Idea
As Reconstruction ended, African Americans faced new
hurdles and the South attempted to rebuild.
Main Ideas
• Reconstruction governments helped reform the South.
• The Ku Klux Klan was organized as African Americans
moved into positions of power.
• As Reconstruction ended, the rights of African Americans
were restricted.
• Southern business leaders relied on industry to rebuild the
South.
Main Idea 1:
Reconstruction governments
helped reform the South.
• Republicans controlled most southern governments but were
unpopular with white southerners.
– Northern-born Republicans who moved south after the war
were called carpetbaggers.
– White southern Republicans were called scalawags.
• African Americans: largest group of southern Republican voters
– Hiram Revels was first African American in U.S. Senate.
• Reconstruction state governments provided money for many new
programs.
– Helped establish public schools; built hospitals; passed laws
against discrimination; constructed railroads and bridges
Main Idea 2:
The Ku Klux Klan was organized as African
Americans moved into positions of power.
Ku Klux Klan
• Created by group of white southerners in Tennessee in
1866
• Secret society opposed to civil rights, particularly suffrage,
for African Americans
• Used violence and terror against African Americans
• Local governments did little to stop the violence, so
Congress passed laws that made it a federal crime to
interfere with elections or to deny citizens equal protection
under the law.
Main Idea 3:
As Reconstruction ended, the rights of
African Americans were restricted.
Republicans were losing power in southern states and in the
North, and they were being blamed for the severe economic
downturn called the Panic of 1873.
The close election of 1876 appeared to have been won by
Democrat Samuel Tilden but was challenged by supporters of
Republican Rutherford B. Hayes.
The Compromise of 1877 gave the election to Hayes, while
agreeing to Democrats’ request to remove federal troops from
the South.
Democrats then regained control of governments in the South,
and were called Redeemers by southerners.
Rights of African Americans were restricted.
Redeemer
Governments
• Set up poll tax to
deny African
Americans the vote
• Introduced legal
segregation, the
forced separation
of whites and
African Americans
in public places,
through Jim Crow
laws
Supreme Court
Sharecropping
• Ruled that Civil
Rights Act of 1875
was
unconstitutional
• Few African
Americans could
afford to buy or
rent farms.
• Plessy v.
Ferguson ruled
that segregation
was allowed if
“separate-butequal” facilities
were provided.
• Became part of
sharecropping
system, providing
labor to landowners and sharing
their crops with
them
• Sharecroppers
faced debt.
Main Idea 4:
Southern business leaders relied on
industry to rebuild the South.
• The southern economy suffered cycles of good and bad
years, as cotton prices went up and down.
• Business leaders hoped industry would strengthen the
southern economy and create a New South.
• The most successful industrial development was textile
mills.
– Work appealed to rural families.
– African Americans not allowed to work in mills.
– Long hours, dangerous working conditions, low wages
Click window above to start playing.
Lincoln’s Plan – 1:55
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Congress and the Reconstruction Plan – 1:48
Reconstruction and Military Rule – 2:41
End of Reconstruction – 3:21
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Introduction to the Lincoln Assassination – 1:47
Alleged Plots and threats against Lincoln – 3:39
Confederate Conspiracy – 4:05
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